Cannes/22.04.2018: Matt Hall had the perfect gameplan in Cannes when he took the race win with a Final 4 time of 57.692s. This was the Australian pilot's first win since he started racing in the Edge 540.

The long-awaited premiere of the Red Bull Air Race in France sparked high drama over the Riviera. Looking for a return to the form that has twice made him runner-up in the World Championship, Hall flew first in the Final 4, clocking 57.692. The time held up when World Champion Yoshihide Muroya of Japan earned a two-second penalty and Dolderer finished 0.072 behind the Australian. But the shock of the round came when it was announced that Czech pilot Martin Šonka, who had apparently advanced to the Final 4, would in fact finish eighth due to evidence found after the end of the Round of 8: a technical infraction of exceeding the maximum RPM limit. As a result, it was 2018 World Championship leader Michael Goulian of the USA who leaped into his raceplane and concluded the final round, his third-place finish keeping him at the top of the overall leaderboard.

With the World Championship wide open, the next stop in Japan could be pivotal. Not only is it a pressure-filled home race for the defending titleholder Muroya in third overall, but Goulian has had his best start in more than nine seasons of racing. Plus, after a full year of improvements to a new raceplane, the Australian Hall is hungry to take the crown himself, and only three points separate him from the American leader. Dolderer, the 2016 World Champion, is chasing hard in fourth, and at fifth in the standings, Šonka will particularly feel he has something to prove after disqualifications in two consecutive races.

Looking confident, Hall declared, "It’s been a long, hard transition – a very steep climb – from our former MXS raceplane to our new Edge, but now with a new team, this new plane and a new sponsor, it feels awesome. We’re feeling set to make a run for the World Championship."